Kick-Gas Contributor

Last night on our way home from dinner, I had an autopilot auto lane change fail that I have posted my Blackvue 750s video. More on that below...

At the end of the video you can her my wife say "Oh my God. This is like..." the rest of the conversation not in the video is her describing her dream where my Tesla kills me. Basically, she dreams that I'm showing off my car to friends and family. I use the "Summon" feature to pull the car up to our group of observers and as the car rolls to us, I back up and trip and fall to the floor. Somehow, I manage to hit the "accelerate" button on the keyfob (which doesn't exist) and the car crushes me with horrified family and onlookers watching. I logically explain to her how this can never happen and, of course, she doesn't hear a single word that I say. This is why I will not activate the autopilot on the Model 3 that I'm getting her.

My wife loves our Tesla but she is not a Tesla fanatic or Muskovite like I am. I think she is more representative of the vast majority of the public that distrusts autonomous driving and has fears of everything she can't directly control. We TOO members and Tesla fanatics are in the minority and those that think like my wife are also our politicians and our leaders and lawmakers. Tesla and other auto manufacturers have to show them though safety and statistics that autonomous driving is good but they also have to be careful not to release buggy version updates or new features that regular laypeople can't safely beta test without bad things happening. Bad news will set back progress disproportionately (and possibly kill me)

So on to the video from last night. I think that driving in New York is among the most challenging environment in the United States. I've seen other crazy driving in foreign countries but U.S. drivers are generally predictable and follow the laws. Not so much in New York. Plus, drivers that like to cut you off, the potholes and poor lane markings and the constant construction all make autonomous driving REALLY challenging.

My Model X is on autopilot in the right lane. I saw a car that was about to enter from the on-ramp so I signaled to start an auto lane change. More than halfway through the lane change, the autopilot reversed back into the previous right lane for an unknown reason.. Had I not been alert, the merging car and I could have collided.

You can hear the autopilot chime where I took over control from the car. Although not evident on the video, the passengers clearly felt the erratic jerking as is evidenced by my wife yelling at my "awful" driving.

Top-Contributor

I don’t want to give you a “like” for this post as it seems your wife wants and dreams of your demise. To “like” that seems off!

Is there any chance at all you didn’t get the turn signal stalk all the way locked down? Doesn’t sound like it as the turn signal keeps chiming past 3 times, but just curious. It seems my wife’s S has had this happen before and I couldn’t remember if it was my fault or the cars.

I will say that this has been one thing about the 3 that I truly love. The steering wheel/stalks...that I originally thought I would dislike. They don’t physically lock and then unlock upon a completed turn, or require you to move it after an auto lane change. When you light press you get the standard 3 “I’m changing lanes” signal, there’s some resistance there that you push passed to get the turning signal to stay on for turns and for auto lane change with autopilot active. When it’s done with either it turns off the signal but there’s nothing physical for you or the car to do.

It’s similar with the PNDR autopilot stalk where one press down is cruise and two is autopilot. I’ve really come around on this and now like it much better than the S.

Glad you aren’t posting here about a crash, you’re reaction time was very fast! Very nicely done!

Kick-Gas Contributor

I don’t want to give you a “like” for this post as it seems your wife wants and dreams of your demise. To “like” that seems off!

Is there any chance at all you didn’t get the turn signal stalk all the way locked down? Doesn’t sound like it as the turn signal keeps chiming past 3 times, but just curious. It seems my wife’s S has had this happen before and I couldn’t remember if it was my fault or the cars.

I will say that this has been one thing about the 3 that I truly love. The steering wheel/stalks...that I originally thought I would dislike. They don’t physically lock and then unlock upon a completed turn, or require you to move it after an auto lane change. When you light press you get the standard 3 “I’m changing lanes” signal, there’s some resistance there that you push passed to get the turning signal to stay on for turns and for auto lane change with autopilot active. When it’s done with either it turns off the signal but there’s nothing physical for you or the car to do.

It’s similar with the PNDR autopilot stalk where one press down is cruise and two is autopilot. I’ve really come around on this and now like it much better than the S.

Glad you aren’t posting here about a crash, you’re reaction time was very fast! Very nicely done!

Thanks. I am always hyper alert when I'm using autopilot. I don't trust it and I feel that I've already avoided several near misses.

And I totally get your rating choice. I had a lot of info in that OP including funny, informative, and like. I've been torn on several other ratings I've given and wished I could have checked more than one!

I really didn't think to check if the stalk was all the way down. I would have thought if the car already auto-lane changed that much it shouldn't matter. The car should just complete the lane change instead of trying to abort. I DEFINITELY didn't reverse the signal to go back into the right lane!

Top-Contributor

Last night on our way home from dinner, I had an autopilot auto lane change fail that I have posted my Blackvue 750s video. More on that below...

At the end of the video you can her my wife say "Oh my God. This is like..." the rest of the conversation not in the video is her describing her dream where my Tesla kills me. Basically, she dreams that I'm showing off my car to friends and family. I use the "Summon" feature to pull the car up to our group of observers and as the car rolls to us, I back up and trip and fall to the floor. Somehow, I manage to hit the "accelerate" button on the keyfob (which doesn't exist) and the car crushes me with horrified family and onlookers watching. I logically explain to her how this can never happen and, of course, she doesn't hear a single word that I say. This is why I will not activate the autopilot on the Model 3 that I'm getting her.

My wife loves our Tesla but she is not a Tesla fanatic or Muskovite like I am. I think she is more representative of the vast majority of the public that distrusts autonomous driving and has fears of everything she can't directly control. We TOO members and Tesla fanatics are in the minority and those that think like my wife are also our politicians and our leaders and lawmakers. Tesla and other auto manufacturers have to show them though safety and statistics that autonomous driving is good but they also have to be careful not to release buggy version updates or new features that regular laypeople can't safely beta test without bad things happening. Bad news will set back progress disproportionately (and possibly kill me)

So on to the video from last night. I think that driving in New York is among the most challenging environment in the United States. I've seen other crazy driving in foreign countries but U.S. drivers are generally predictable and follow the laws. Not so much in New York. Plus, drivers that like to cut you off, the potholes and poor lane markings and the constant construction all make autonomous driving REALLY challenging.

My Model X is on autopilot in the right lane. I saw a car that was about to enter from the on-ramp so I signaled to start an auto lane change. More than halfway through the lane change, the autopilot reversed back into the previous right lane for an unknown reason.. Had I not been alert, the merging car and I could have collided.

You can hear the autopilot chime where I took over control from the car. Although not evident on the video, the passengers clearly felt the erratic jerking as is evidenced by my wife yelling at my "awful" driving.

I had a good laugh at your wife's reaction and the story about the car running you over, not sure what that says about my sense of humor but thanks anyway. I think the auto lane change will cancel if the car doesn't see the far side line half way through. Based on the conditions maybe it was confused by the oncoming lights and didn't clearly "see" the line. I watched the video again and right at that point it seems the lights were very bright coming from the other cars.

Active Member

The thing that has scared me the most with AP 2 has been when driving at freeway speed (80mph) and going into a curve and it doesn't appear the car will make the turn. The line it chooses is not one I would choose and I frequently take control rather than risk finding out whether it is going to turn or not. It tends to want to be far to the left in the lane, rather than the center and wait too long to start the turn (making it a gradual turn rather than numerous small abrupt turns).